[Special Stock] "Korean Games Released in China"... Game Stocks Surge on Foreign License Issuance

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] After the Chinese government allowed the issuance of foreign-invested game licenses for seven Korean games for the first time in 1 year and 6 months since June last year, game stocks are showing strong performance in the stock market on the 29th.

At 10 a.m. that day, JoyCity was trading at 4,835 won, up 20.63% from the previous trading day. Following were Netmarble (16.37%), Devsisters (11.22%), Longtu Korea (10.83%), Nexon Games (9.09%), Mgame (7.45%), T3 (6.767%), Webzen (5.39%), Kakao Games (7.35%), and NCSoft (5.88%), with most domestic game companies showing an upward trend.

The day before, the Chinese National Press and Publication Administration announced the issuance of foreign-invested game licenses for 44 games, including Smilegate's Lost Ark and Epic Seven, Nexon's MapleStory M, Netmarble's Ni no Kuni, A3: Still Alive, Shop Titans, and Npixel's Gran Saga. The game license is a kind of permit required to service games in China, and foreign game companies are issued 'foreign-invested game licenses.'

This is the first time since Pearl Abyss's Black Desert Mobile in June last year that domestic games have received foreign-invested game licenses from Chinese authorities. Previously, China had refused to issue game licenses for Korean games since March 2017, citing the deployment of THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) as the reason.